MotoGP Mandalika: Nothing to prove for Binder, ‘felt like fighting for victory’

Darryn Binder had the ride, and fight of his life on Sunday after putting his WithU Yamaha into the top ten at the IndonesianGP.

Wrestling in the challenging conditions, as rain struck Lombok Island half an hour before the premier class race was due to start, delaying proceedings by over an hour and with the race distance already reduced to 20 laps over surface concerns, the South African launched from 22nd on the grid. By lap seven he was in a point-scoring position with teammate Andrea Dovizioso just in front before the second Yamaha was forced to retire with a technical issue.

Further progress found him enter the top ten and on the wheels of his elder brother’s factory KTM before he dispatched the Red Bull on his way to eighth. The final three laps saw further family battles as the M1 struggled with late-race grip, Binder caught in a three-way fight with both Brad and Aleix Espargaro, his limited experience in the wet on the MotoGP bike leaving him on the back of the group as the chequered flag came into view.

“Yeah, so it was an interesting race for sure,” Binder exclaimed after the dust had settled.

“When it started raining before the race, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m quite excited to get a rain race under my belt, because it’s a learning experience and you know that it’s going to come at some point so I might as well just attack it now!’

“Already from the out lap to the grid I was really impressed with the amount of grip that the wet tyres had,” he continued, having run Michelin’s medium rain compound. “Just going to the grid I was like, ‘Wow, this feels quite okay’. I started off the race lap by lap, going a bit harder, bit faster and every lap I was really so impressed with the grip and the feeling that I had with the